Tag Archives: Sweden

A new Swedish startup – Atingo – is promising a “radical” new approach to e-lending in libraries.

Atingo is co-funded by the Swedish publishing service Publit and the technology provider Axiell. Atingo positions the library and the publisher as collaborators. It will draw on Axiell’s e-lending systems and infrastructure, and an interface developed by Publit that allows the library and publisher to negotiate on price and availability in real time.

It will also further the so-called Swedish Model of e-book lending in libraries – transaction fees for every loan; no cap on the number of concurrent loans; and access to full catalogues without entry fees.

The Swedish Library Association (Svensk Biblioteksforening) launched this public awareness campaign (in Swedish, but plays well with translation widgets), suggesting that, with ebooks, corporations and businessmen are currently determining what books are available for access and borrowing, rather than librarians. The campaign included placing advertisements and producing brochures.

The Swedish Library Association (Svensk Biblioteksforening) released the brochure The Library and E-Books (English version), outlining the current situation around ebooks and libraries in Sweden, listing some key principle for the supply of ebooks to libraries, and advocating for a sustainable remuneration model.

More information on the proposed remuneration model is available on the association’s website (in Swedish, but plays well with translation widgets). There is also a more detailed position paper, released June 2012, which seems to only exist in a Swedish language version.